Where the Snow Lay
by Rumour of an Alchemist
Summary: Alternate Universe. Technically supporting material for 'Saint Potter'. Severus Snape's upbringing and Hogwarts days. Warning! Non-canon events and characters who diverge from their canon counterparts.
1. Before Hogwarts

Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter. I am not Leslie Charteris. I do not own The Saint.

Note/Further Disclaimer: Whilst _Blue Peter_ is an authentic television show (which I don't own either) since Simon Templar is fictitious, it is unlikely that he ever made a personal appearance on it outside the bounds of fiction.

Further Note: Technically this story is back-story for the Severus Snape who appears in 'Saint Potter'. This material is alternate universe.

* * *

…_Where the snow lay dinted…_

-line from a traditional English carol.

* * *

Severus Snape first became aware of the existence of the natural phenomenon that was Simon Templar (also known as 'The Saint') at the age of eight, via the medium of television and the children's television show _Blue Peter_. Simon Templar appeared on it, as a special guest, ostensibly to talk about a recent trip he'd been on to Africa. Whilst he was about it, he made the female presenter blush outrageously, and gave an impromptu demonstration of knife throwing at a melon balanced on the head of one of the male presenters.

It was all over the newspapers the next day, with half of the writers outraged at the appearance, and the other half delighted.

Severus Snape didn't care about current opinion. He had a new hero, with mischievous eyes and a devil-may-care smile, who surely couldn't actually be as old as was suggested?

He commenced a series of visits to the local library to research back-issues of newspapers there. He discovered that, unless there had been a lot of newspaper faking going on, Simon Templar must be at least sixty years old, though judging by his performance on _Blue Peter_ he was remarkably fit and active for his age. And if the stories and scandals and outrages in the newspapers going back twenty or thirty years were anything to go by, Simon Templar had fitted a remarkable amount into one life. Beautiful women (which for some reason Severus couldn't figure out the papers seemed to think important), fast cars, clashes with policemen and criminals – even periods on the run from the law in one or more countries. It seemed impossible that such a man could have existed and _not_ been a wizard in disguise, and yet there he was, in black and white print on faded pages, and Severus' mother, Eileen, vehemently denied that the man was anything other than a muggle.

"He'd have never been permitted to make such a spectacle of himself if he'd been a wizard – or even a _squib_." she had said, although in a manner which was not altogether unapproving.

Severus' father, Tobias, made disparaging remarks about 'Mr. Simon Templar', but apparently considered Severus' time better spent going to the library looking up old newspaper cuttings, than hanging around at home reading _those books_ or aimlessly wandering the streets.

* * *

Severus ended up writing to his idol. At least a couple of Simon Templar's addresses were public knowledge, and it wasn't hard for Severus to discover one of them. It was a short letter he wrote, professing his admiration, and saying that whilst he, Severus, wanted to be an adventurer like Mr. Templar when he grew up, his mother wanted him to go into what was the traditional family 'line of work'.

He hadn't really been expecting a reply but – three months after he had written – a brief note came back:

_Dear Severus,_

_Adventure is something which is always there, no matter what else may occupy your time, if only you stop and look for it._

It was signed with a doodle stick figure, with a halo on at a rakish angle.

* * *

Severus' mother took up child-minding for some reason which eluded Severus, and very determinedly made the acquaintance of a family from a better-off part of town: the Evans family. Severus' father grumbled only moderately about it, since there was an exchange of money to the financial benefit of the Snapes involved.

Severus' mother expected Severus to socialise with the girls if he was about and they were in the house, and in fact insisted on his not sneaking off to the library every time they were due to be present.

The older girl, Petunia, wasn't too bad, but the younger girl, Lily, was a nightmare. She was always going on about wanting to be a witch, and whispering away at some sort of secret which her elder sister said that they mustn't bother anyone else with.

It took Severus some time to realise that his mother actually expected him to be _friends_ with these two.

It took months and ultimately the arrival of Lily's Hogwarts letter for him to discover that apparently Lily was actually a muggle-born witch. Even then he probably wouldn't have known anything about it if his mother hadn't insisted on taking Lily shopping for school supplies.

It belatedly occurred to him that his mother might want him to associate with these two _because_ Lily was a witch his own age, and she wanted Severus thinking about other people with magic, instead of always going off to the library and reading old newspapers.

Severus hadn't heard about one way in which magic had ever improved anything for anyone other than to save a privileged few who were actually witches and wizards time and work. On the other hand, he'd read an astonishing amount about what Simon Templar had done to improve the world in general and he guessed that there was a _lot_ more which hadn't ever made it into the papers simply because it was extra-legal.

The only reason Severus decided that he was going to put up with Hogwarts was because a school of magic, upon reflection, ought to at least count for _something_ on the adventure front.

* * *

Author Notes:

I really couldn't envision a Saint obsessed Severus Snape who spent all his spare time in the library looking up old newspaper cuttings from the age of eight or nine encountering Lily and Petunia in the canon manner. His mother, concerned with Severus' fixation on a muggle, researching other magical families in the area and trying to introduce Severus to Lily's company by child-minding for the Evans family was the only convincing way I was able to come up with for Severus to have met Lily before Hogwarts. Of course from the point of view of Severus Snape at this age, being a witch or wizard is over-rated, as they don't seem to do _anything_, whereas Simon Templar was preventing the spread of a weapon of horrific potential, saving heads of state from being assassinated by anarchists and war-mongers, and thwarting bullion robberies on the high seas or in the skies for several decades... (And those are just the stories the newspapers would have got hold of, as they were acts which were publicly known.)


	2. First Year at Hogwarts

(typing error corrected 3rd december 2012)

Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter. I am not Leslie Charteris. I do not own The Saint.

Note: Technically this story continues to be back-story for the Severus Snape who appears in 'Saint Potter'. This material is alternate universe.

* * *

"Wanting to be in a house because your family's always been there sounds to me a lot like loyalty and Hufflepuff." Severus said.

He made good his escape whilst they were confused and laughing at James Potter's expense.

He had come upon a fellow first year (and half-blood) on the Express, Cynthia Davenport, who was the daughter of a family of furniture makers for the magical world – and who had been used as 'target practise' for a leg-locker curse. Severus had sorted her out and then made the mistake of promising to avenge her upon those responsible. That had turned out to be James Potter and his three mates – a future gang of bullies, Severus had no doubt.

Unfortunately, he had not stopped to count how many of them there were before storming into their compartment bristling with righteous rage because he figured that that was what his hero would do.

Upon reflection he had concluded that even Simon Templar would have probably stopped to assess how many potential foes might be on the other side of a door before charging in.

Severus Snape had found himself trapped in a compartment with four would-be Gryffindors, with nothing but his tongue and his wits to get him out in one piece. Technically he had a wand too, but so did they, and being outnumbered counted much more when it came to wands than when it came to wits.

Somehow he had managed to escape having actually told James Potter off for 'pranking' Cynthia without having Potter and his mates jinx him into oblivion.

They were easily distracted by jokes – even ones at their own expense – Severus made a mental note.

* * *

Severus hadn't had any opinions on where the Sorting Hat should place him – well not apart from somewhere where he would have 'lots of adventure'.

The Sorting Hat had apparently decided that in Severus' case this required a Slytherin placement, and Severus had figuratively shrugged his shoulders and gone to join his new housemates. They turned out to be unbelievably ignorant about muggles and muggle-related matters, and incredibly dangerous too.

Right. Well he _had_ asked for adventure, and here in Slytherin he was surrounded by danger on practically all sides on a daily basis – not least in that word got around rather rapidly that his mother was a 'muggle lover' in several senses of the word.

Oh well. At least this was going to be _interesting_.

And he had _one_ friendly face around – the hat had sent Cynthia Davenport to Slytherin too, on the grounds (as she subsequently confided to Severus) 'she had big plans for the family business'.

* * *

James Potter and his three cronies, of course, had got their dearest wishes and had all been sorted into Gryffindor – which they considered supplied them the perfect excuse to swagger around acting as mini-bullies, on the grounds that they were supposedly protecting the school from slimy Slytherins. They had soon christened themselves 'The Marauders', which in Severus' opinion rather gave the lie to their claim that their intentions were entirely benevolent.

However, Severus was rather too busy trying to survive and to work out how to do something about the undesirable prejudices of his own house to bother much about James Potter and his cronies for the present. He responded to the occasional crude quips they sent his way about him and his 'wooden legged girlfriend' (which to their minds was a tremendously funny remark about how they had used a leg-locker curse on Cynthia on the Express) with rather wittier remarks, and otherwise tried to stay out of their ways; well either that or to ensure that they and the insufferably snooty fifth year Slytherin prefect called Lucius Malfoy ran into one another. Whatever the outcome of one of _those_ occasions was, it generally counted as a 'win' as far as Severus was concerned, although without any source of reliable intelligence on the Gryffindors' movements setting such encounters up tended to be rather hit-and-miss – especially once it became apparent that one of the Marauders had an invisibility cloak.

Severus rapidly took to carrying small bags of flour around in his pockets for use in emergencies involving invisibility cloaks.

Petunia Evans' annoying younger sister, Lily, had ended up in Gryffindor, as well, which made her even more annoying, in Severus' opinion – on top of which, apparently because he _was_ doing his best to ignore her, she started trying to get his attention in any shared Gryffindor/Slytherin classes (especially in potions) by trying to sabotage his work if she could. Not that she succeeded in her efforts, but it _did_ oblige Severus to concentrate extra-hard in potions class, and read well ahead across _all_ subjects so that he could stay one step ahead of whatever it was she was planning next. Had she not been a member of the 'fairer sex' Severus would have been tempted to retaliate in kind, but she was and he was reasonably certain that unless she moved into territory of outright villainy it would be Unsaintly to respond in such a manner to her efforts.

And besides, Lily _was_ a muggle-born, and given he was trying to work out ways to adjust the attitudes of his housemates regarding anything remotely muggle, it _would_ rather undermine any future discussions he had if he'd spent his first year potions classes trying to blow up the cauldron of and jinxing aforementioned muggle-born…

* * *

Author Notes: (subject to update)

As far as I know 'Cynthia Davenport' is not a character who exists in Harry Potter canon. The surname seemed appropriate to me for a family of furniture makers.

No Severus isn't interested in Lily at present. He still views her as that annoying girl his mother spent months trying to get him to make friends with. (Lily, on the other hand, is fascinated by Severus' mysterious and aloof air, which his attempts to ignore her only contribute to...)


End file.
